What is a Drum Roll?

Series Summary

Drums make up the backbone of most rock and jazz bands. These percussion instruments are used to keep the beat for the song and the other musicians. Drums are the world's oldest and most essential of musical instruments, and have remained basically unchanged for thousands of years. Drums are not tuned instruments but they do create the bones of a song and are especially important in rock music and jazz.

In this free video series, our expert will demonstrate how to play a basic drum roll. You will learn how to grip the drums sticks, including the match grip and the bounce grip. you'll get drumming instruction for playing 16th notes, single strokes, and double strokes, as well as exercises to improve speed and accuracy.

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Shaun Schaefer on behalf of Expert Village. Today we're going to be learning how to play a drum roll. Hi, my name is Shaun Schaefer and I'm a drummer. I've been playing the drums for about 15, 16 years. Currently, I'm the drummer of the internationally known pop/rock band Blessid Union of Souls. When playing the drums or when you're learning how to play the drums, the first thing everybody wants to learn how to do is to play a drum roll. Everybody knows what a drum roll is, right? Even when you're watching TV, a game show, or something like that, they always ask for a drum roll please. I know in my playing, one of the neatest moments in my playing career if you will, was when I really figured out how to play a drum roll. The feeling that you get is just such a unique feeling because it's a really different style of how you play drums as far as how your wrists feel, your arms, and learning the different strokes. It's a really neat feeling. Today, we're going to learn how to play a drum roll. It's actually a lot easier than it sounds. You might think it's really difficult. Once we get started, it's going to sound like oh man I can't do this. Once you get it, it's really easy to do. Let's go ahead and get started on how to play a drum roll."